


Wood and Steel

by malecismyheartandsoul



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec POV, Alec knows how fabulous Magnus is, Bamf!Magnus, Fluff, M/M, Magic, Magnus is fabulous, Malec, Post Finale, Sparring, Training Scene, boys get sweaty, but they don't get dirty, gay af, hope this helps with the pain until April 3rd, no angst because I decided not to be cruel for once, they lowkey have a shoulder kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2019-01-20 16:04:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12436425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malecismyheartandsoul/pseuds/malecismyheartandsoul
Summary: “Y-you want me to train, with you?”“What, afraid you can’t handle it?” Magnus asked, turning the staff over in his hands.“I was thinking more the other way around.”orMagnus walks in on Alec training and challenges him to sparring session. (It's a great, sweaty time y'all).





	Wood and Steel

_One, two, three, break._

  
_One, two, three, break._

  
_One, two, three, break._

  
He hasn’t stopped for almost two hours now, his back rigid and tight as he threw punch after punch at the thick bag of leather and sand before him. He had missed this, missed the feeling of pushing the weight from side to side, his knuckles just barely managing to keep from splitting open, wrapped securely in bandages.

  
Sweat beaded down his spine as he leaned to the side and let out a huff of breath. It was exhilarating, the feeling of his muscles burning and his arms straining. He could feel his heart beating violently in his chest, could hear his eardrums ringing in his ears.

  
He had missed that feeling. It used to be a way to cope with everything he was hiding, to bury the pain beneath sweat and blood; yet another way to prove himself as the strong soldier he was supposed to be. But he didn’t need that anymore. He didn’t need that validation anymore, or that method of avoidance, because he had Magnus now.

  
Magnus, Magnus who was beautiful, and kind, and so completely and utterly too good for him that he sometimes thought he had made him up.

  
Now, that feeling was a method of empowerment, a way to release his stress of being the Head of the New York Institute, a way to improve himself as a leader and warrior for himself, and not for anybody else.

  
He was in the middle of re-wrapping his now damp bandages when he heard the sound of his favourite voice in the whole world.

  
“Ah, Alexander, now how did I know that I’d find you here?”

  
Alec turned around, a grin already making its way across his face. Magnus was right there, beautiful and graceful as ever, making his way towards him.

  
“I guess you just know me that well,” Alec said, smiling down at Magnus. “What are you doing here?”

  
“Isabelle needed help on a mission; she needed information on a hoard of demons that they couldn’t identify.”

  
“Nobody told me about-“

  
“That’s because everybody knows that there is no way in hell that you’d be able to concentrate if you knew that I was in the building,” Magnus looked up at Alec with a look of adoration.

  
“You're not that distracting Magnus," said Alec, but his eyes betrayed him as he stared at Magnus's shoulders.

“Oh, really?"

  
“Really,” Alec smirked, leaning down to kiss Magnus, but Magnus turned away with a grimace on his face.

  
“You’re sweaty,” he said, glancing down at Alec’s exposed chest, but the look on his face, raw and full of want, gave him away as being far less repulsed than what he pretended to be.

  
“You’ve never minded that before,” Alec replied, his voice low.

  
“That’s because I’m usually sweaty with you,” Magnus stated, looking up at Alec through his eyelashes, inching closer to Alec step-by-step. “If you want, I could be sweaty with you right now.”

  
He took another step closer, and Alec felt his stomach flip, his heart beating impossibly fast.

  
“Magnus, we’re in the middle of the Institute, I don’t-“

  
“I meant train with you, my dear Alexander, but it is astonishing to know how dirty your mind can be,” Magnus chuckled and took another step, but this time to walk right past him and retrieve a staff from the stand on the wall.

  
“Y-you want me to train, with you?” Alec asked, slightly flushed from Magnus’s comment.

  
“What, afraid you can’t handle it?” Magnus asked, turning the staff over in his hands.

  
“I was thinking more the other way around,” Alec said, crossing his arms over his chest, though there was a smile slowly spreading across his face again, as it always did when Magnus was around.

  
“Is that so?” Magnus laughed, cocking an eyebrow.

  
Alec knew that Magnus was strong, he had seen him in battle, he had seen him defend himself, and he had seen him defend others. Hell, Magnus had even carried him at some point in time. But he had never thought of Magnus as the type of person you spar with.

  
“Okay, Shadowhunter, let’s see if all that training has done you any good,” Magnus smirked, and with a snap of his finger, he was in nothing but the dress pants he had arrived with, his shoes and clothes piled neatly on the side-bench. He took another staff from the rack and tossed it towards Alec.

  
Alec caught the staff without breaking eye-contact with Magnus, his grin wide now.

  
“Bring it on, warlock.”

  
Magnus circled him, like a cat stalking his prey. His legs were slightly bent, his arms held before him in a fighting stance that could only be perfected with years of training.  
He made the first move, knocking his staff against Alec’s.

  
Alec did little to return the blow, still unsure over whether or not he could actually try to hurt Magnus.

  
“You better not be going easy on me, Alec,” Magnus said, sending another hit Alec’s way.

  
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Alec said, before dashing forwards and swinging his staff with full force. Magnus blocked it immediately, his shoulders trembling as he chuckled.  
They went back and forth on the training mat until they were just a blur of limbs and wood, moving with a speed that only a shadowhunter and a warlock could.

  
Alec tried his best not to be distracted by the way Magnus’s muscles rippled as he moved, or the way the sweat would drip across his honey-brown skin, or the way his-

  
“This is becoming a bit tedious, don’t you think?” Magnus said, dropping his staff so that it blocked Alec’s hit midway. “What do you say we make it more interesting?”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

  
Magnus just smiled, before lifting his staff, magic flowing from his hand and down the length of the rod, turning it from wood to steel. The blue flames licked across the ends of the now metal staff, leaving behind intricate patterns, ending finally with the head of a lion. Alec expected the flames to disappear, but they remained at the mouth of the lion, burning brightly.

  
“Oh, so we’re playing dirty now?”

  
Magnus laughed, holding his shaft out before him as he returned to the fighting stance of before, “Always.”

  
“Okay, fine.” Alec walked over to the bench, reaching for his stele. He ignited every rune that he could think of, before drawing even more runes onto his still wooden staff.

  
“You ready?” Alec asked, returning to his position from before, unable to resist smiling.

  
And then they returned to their battle, steel banging against wood, the blue flames crackling in the air as Alec hit it with a speed that the warlock could no longer match. Alec jumped, rising so high that he passed over Magnus’s head, before knocking his staff into Magnus’s as hard as he could.

  
Magnus returned the blow, several times, knocking Alec back until he had him pressed against the wall of the training room, his steel shaft held against his neck.

  
“You give up yet?” he asked, smirking, pressing the metal rod further into Alec’s throat, hard enough to almost hurt, but not hard enough to scar.

  
“Not a chance in hell.”

  
Alec pushed Magnus back with his own staff, sending hit after hit until they were back to circling each other at the centre of the mat. They were both breathing heavily at that point, hair damp and skin slick with sweat.

  
Magnus’s makeup was only slightly smudged; his cheeks flushed and lips red as he stared up at Alec. A few strands of red hair fell across his forehead, and Alec wondered if he had ever seen somebody look so beautiful and so deadly at the same time.

  
He charged at Magnus then, pushing him so hard that they both toppled to the floor. Alec hovered over Magnus as he dropped his staff and pinned Magnus’s arms to the ground.

  
“Gotcha,” Alec grinned, breathless and victorious as he stared at Magnus.

  
The warlock beneath him squirmed, trying to break free from Alec’s vice grip.

  
“Are you sure about that?”

  
Magnus looked up at Alec, gazing up at him through his eyelashes. He had a devilish smirk on his face, closing his eyes before opening them again to reveal his cat eyes. Alec felt his grip falter and his knees buckle as the feline pupils dilated, and Magnus took the opportunity to flip them over.

  
He pushed himself up so that he was raised slightly above Alec, looking down at him with a smug smile on his face. All that Alec could focus on was his eyes, how beautiful they were, and his lips, how inviting they looked, and his arms, as they bracketed his face.

  
“I win.”

  
“I don’t care,” Alec said, pulling Magnus’s face down to kiss him as fiercely as he could, and Magnus returned the kiss with just as much enthusiasm. His hips bucked up, needing to be as close to Magnus as possible.

  
“You were right, I couldn’t handle it.”

**Author's Note:**

> I MEANT TO WRITE THIS A MONTH AGO WHOOPS I'M A FAILIURE but whatever here ya go, hope you enjoyed. Also, I wrote it at like 2 am, so bear with me if it sucks.


End file.
